In the mechanical production of cigars, cheroots and similar tobacco products, use in made of wrapper rolling machines for cutting out the wrapper and applying it to the filler or bunch supplied to the same machine. As the wrapper plays an important role for the quality of the finished cigar with regard to flavour and appearance, selected tobacco leaves have to be used for this purpose, and according to usual practice, after having been suitably moistened and smoothed or spread in appropriate machines or devices these leaves are stripped or torn through along their central rib. Concurrently therewith any damaged tobacco leaves can be sorted out, and the leaves which shall be supplied to the wrapper rolling machines can be turned so as to lie in stacks with the same side (face or back) upwards. Such a stack can suitably comprise 20-50 leaves, or more correctly half-leaves, as the right sides and the left sides have to be applied by rolling in separate machines in order that the remaining side ribs of the leaves can have both a uniform position (external or internal) and a uniform orientation (mainly in the longitudinal direction of the cigar), in all the cigars produced.
In spite of the high costs in connection both with the spreading and stripping or tearing through of the leaves in a special section of the factory, and with the additional internal transport thus required, this process of manufacture has so far been regarded as necessary in view of the optimum utilization of the wrapper rolling machines themselves, whose capacity in practice is primarily determined by the rate at which the operator can cut out the wrappers from the prepared half-leaves.
In the conventional rolling machines the cutting device comprises a stationary cutting knife having an upwardly directed edge and a roller cooperating with said knife, as well as a shield that surrounds the knife and is pressed slightly back (downwards) by the roller so as to uncover the knife. The knife as well as the shield may be provided with suction apertures for holding the leaf by vacuum during the cutting operation. After said operation, the partial vacuum is suspended and the cut wrapper is transferred by means of a swinging arm to the rolling mechanism, while the operator rearranges the remainder of the leaf for cutting out a further wrapper, if this is possible. At the end, the useless scraps of the tobacco leaf are blown away while the operator takes the next leaf and arranges it in the cutting device.
The present invention is based upon the recognition that it is possible, by making comparatively small modifications in the conventional wrapper rolling machines, to achieve a sequence of operation or a program of manufacture requiring less manual labour and thus making possible a reduction in the total production cost.